Boast by ruling BBMP council member flops

In A dramatic announcement made in the council a month ago, ruling council leader B R Nanjundappa said that BBMP officials cared little about the sorry condition of roads in the city.

The leader had then made a tall claim that he would fix the problem by September 29.

However, he appears to have put himself in an embarrassing situation as the deadline has passed by and nothing has changed on the ground.

B R Nanjundappa, ruling party leader in BBMP Council, had announced to fix all the road by September 29, but he had to eat humble pie as he failed to keep his promise

Interestingly, even those council members, who had patted him on the back after he made the heroic announcement, are now reportedly currying favour with the opposition in the hopes of getting back in their good books.

When MiD DAY reached Nanjundappa's office yesterday to follow up on his grand plan, he said, "We had more holidays this month, which is why we could not meet the deadline.

Also, all our workers and engineers had gone on leave. We will fix all the roads before the Metro launch and in case anything is pending, we will take it up from October 23," he said.

A party insider and close associate of Nanjundappa revealed that the leader is unhappy with the overall slow pace of development and also pointed out that and few senior BJP corporators are not happy with the Mayor and her style of functioning.

"Our leader is not happy and wants to see development happening on a war footing. He is even disappointed with the Mayor's scheduled visit to New York at a time when much work is pending," said the source.

Going nowhereBBMP officials tackling the mammoth task of completing work claim that funds are sufficient, but their extra requisitions are not being fulfilled. "We get enough funds and each ward is entitled to Rs 10 lakh for road repair and pothole filling work.

There are 198 wards and same rules are applicable to all. However, when we need extra money to complete work, the palike turns their back on us," said B T Ramesh, engineer-in-chief, BBMP.

The opposition, which has no dearth of reasons to embarrass the ruling council, is now harping on the bad roads and pothole issue.

The opposition has now threatened the ruling party and claim they will stage a huge protest on October 20 the new date promised by Nanjundappa to complete work on the bad roads.

The threat is that they would celebrate a 'black day' if the ruling party does not fix all the bad roads on the day of the Metro inauguration.

"We don't have proper roads, and regular water supply is a distant dream. If the council is not keen to get things done, we will protest and celebrate the grand Metro launch day as a black day," said R Sampath Raj, opposition corporator.